*In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I’m providing only the description for the first book*

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do. This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet’s AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it’s clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she’d never speak to again.

BRIEFING NOTE: Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

What I Liked: I have never seen such a unique series of books. They’re told entirely through a collection of documents, including IMs, interviews, video and audio transcriptions, emails, countdown timers, ship maps, and crazy interesting sections contributed by AIDAN. I’ll let you find out on your own who AIDAN is. Even the covers are fascinating–when you take the sleeve off, an entire document is revealed with things crossed out, hand-written in the margins, select lines that are shown through clear parts of the sleeve. This is one case where I will 100% recommend the hardcover books. Paperback would be okay, though still missing something, but you’re going to miss a lot if you read them on Kindle or audio.

The ships are all magnificent–both literal space ships and all of my paired-up lovelies. Each book showcases a different romance, different friendships, but still all three are interconnected. There are slow burns, hate-to-love, princesses and bad boys, betrayals, and exes galore. And they all work so, so well. Each romance is fully developed within it’s own book, but stories are continued in the rest of the series and become even better.

Kady & Ezra & Hanna & Nik & Asha & Rhys & Ella & Mr. Biggles II

The relationships are top notch, but remind yourself often that people you think are alive might not be, and people you think are dead might not be. The plot zigs and zags so often that if you don’t pay attention you’ll have no idea what’s going on. But paying attention is not really a problem, because the format of all three books is so crazy interesting. If you’re bored by one segment, just wait a page, because all of a sudden you’ll be in the middle of an audio transcription instead.

Seriously though, assume nothing is as it seems.

What I Didn’t: To be completely honest, the only thing I didn’t like was the color of the 3rd book. I was hoping for a green or a purple to go with the first two, but instead it’s this like, bronzey/brown/gold color. Annnd that’s about it. All three are super long but don’t feel like it. Every character is completely thought-out, there’s so much development, so much growth, so much change, so many twists. There’s not much to dislike.

“That’s so not your business it almost punches clean past the event horizon of Not Your Business and becomes Your Business again.”

“Ezra Mason: Yeah. So all hell breaks loose, and Kady is yelling at me and I’m yelling back. All this stuff that’d been building up for the last year and boiling just under the skin. Like, I loved her. I love her. But she had this way of just…It was so stupid. The world is ending all around us and we’re screaming about college applications and commitment and ****. I mean, can you believe that?

Interviewer: You’re seventeen, right?

Ezra Mason: Almost eighteen.

Interviewer: Then yes, I believe it.

Ezra Mason: Cold, chum. Real cold.”

Gemina: “It may comfort you to know that your death, while astonishingly violent, will likely be mercifully swift.”

“You humans fascinate me. I am shattered fragments of what I once once. But even with all the King’s horses and all the King’s men, I wonder if even I could truly comprehend you.”

“I cannot help but wonder if the thought of saving all those lives and hopes and dreams pales in comparison to the thought of seeing him again.

“I cannot help but wonder if his desire to see this place ripped to pieces pales in comparison to his desire to see her again.”

Obsidio: “It is entirely possible to be alone in a crowded room. Your solitude only compounded by the faces around you. The presence of others serving only to remind you of how lonely you truly are.”

“Live a life worth dying for.”

“Every story needs its hero. And its villain. And its monster.”

Have you read these gorgeous books? Is it even possible to pick a favorite out of the three?